Filed under: Education
iPods on Campus
8AM. The biggest lecture hall on campus. Strong coffee and lots of it. The soft, monotonous voice of the professor--or worse, the teaching assistant--droning on and on and... C'mon. Face it. No human being is going to absorb information at 8AM in the morning, especially in the midst of severe sleep and caffeine deficiency.
Enter the iPod. Today's Wisconsin State Journal has an interesting article about how podcasts supplement and reinforce material presented in lectures. Last year, the University of Wisconsin's IT department made a big push to encourage instructors to get involved with their "Engage Podcasting" pilot program. They offered small grants and technical support to staff willing to put their class materials into podcast form.
From all reports, it's been a big success. More than half of University of Wisconsin at Madison students own digital players like iPods. The rest can download and listen to lectures on their personal computers. Students can re-listen (or, I'm sure to be more honest, listen for the first time) to lectures while riding busses, on airplanes or while jogging on treadmills.
The cutest quote of the piece? One professor says his students like "being able to stop me and rewind me."
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